Zap Action Brigade Protests Hearings

By Loretta Feller

On April 23, 1981, the six women of the Women's Liberation Zap Action Brigade interrupted hearings by the Senate Sub-Committee on Separation of Powers (part of the Senate Judiciary Committee) orchestrated by Senator John East (R-N.Carolina) to, produce favorable testimony for Senate Bill 158, the so-called "Human Life Statute". S.B. 158 would allow states to outlaw abortion on the basis that life begins at the moment of conception. The East hearings featured testimony by eight doctors and scientists, seven of whom were known to have belonged to anti-abortion organizations or to have anti-abortion views. NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League), the ACLU, Planned Parenthood and the Alan Guttmacher Institute were among those prohibited from testifying.

All six women from the Zap Action Brigade were arrested on charges of disruption of Congress, which carry a maximum penalty of a $500 fine and/or six months' imprisonment. This action crystallized the question of tactics in light of the anti-woman mood of Congress: will we find it necessary to participate in civil .disobedience to safeguard our reproductive rights?

Tacie Dejanikus of Off Our Backs (Washington, D.C.'s women's news journal), one of those arrested, said, “I would rather face disruption of Congress. charges than murder charges later. The press coverage was very good. I hope our action will lead other women all over the country to similarly risk jail, or we will all risk even worse penalties."

The Brigade, formed in response to the SubCommittee hearings, presented four facts which point to the lack of wisdom and justice in the move toward prohibition of abortion: 1) that a woman

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having regular heterosexual intercourse, using birth control, still has a statistical chance of 21⁄2 unexpected pregnancies in her lifetime; 2) that abortion has been used as a means of reproductive control since the beginning of recorded history; 3) that when abortion is illegal, women are forced into lifethreatening situations; and 4) that the anti-abortion movement will, if successful, force these conditions on women who don't agree with them, while the prochoice movement wants only that women have the right to choose whether or not to have a child and to have support from society for either decision.

Ignoring the potential impact on women, Senator East, head of the Sub-Committee, barred testimony on the implications of denying abortions. He even banned the word "abortion" in the hearings. Also, he denied 'the request of Sen. Max Baucus (D-Montana) that minority counsel be allowed to question the witnesses.

To demonstrate the protest of the women who would be affected by S.B. 158, the Zap Action Brigade women divided into two groups; while the witnesses were speaking, three women stood on chairs and unfolded a poster which they read in unison: "This bill will put 1.5 million women in jail, in hospitals, in fear." Twenty minutes later, after the first group was arrested and led away, the second group of three women entered the hearing room, unfolded posters, and chanted, "A woman's life is a human life. Stop the abortion prohibition bill."

Feeling the heat of criticism for the distorted hearings from numerous groups, Senator East has since opened the hearings to additional testimony on the medical, scientific and legal/constitutional implications of the bill. The hearings were scheduled to end in May and move to the Senate floor for a vote. Now,

Mother's Day March

By Myrna Finny

Julia Ward Howe, an American suffragist and reformer, was instrumental at the turn of the century in establishing Mother's Day as a day for peace. This year on Mother's Day, several thousand women, men and children of all ages from all over the country took part in a peaceful march in Washington, D.C. to protest against the nuclear arms race. The march was sponsored by the Women's Party for Survival, a single-issue party founded by Dr. Helen Caldicott with the goal of nuclear disarmament.

The quiet march proceeded from the Capitol down to Lafayette Park across from the White House. There Dr. Caldicott, Randall Forsberg (Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies), Betsy Sweet (Women's International League for Peace and Freedom), and Dr. Benjamin Spock spoke to the crowd.

Designed to be a "Sunday best" affair, women marchers were defined stereotypically as mothers, and only as mothers. Lesbians were not to identify themselves as such in banners or signs. However, as the afternoon and evening progressed, members of the Women's Party for Survival (along with other participants) donned pink triangles in silent protest of the policy and in support of their sisters. This was a small but important step in raising the consciousness of some of the organizers and, in turn, making the organization more flexible and strong.

Acknowledging the imminence and horror of a nuclear holocaust, the speakers called for "a halt to the nuclear arms race," and a freeze of all research, development and deployment of new nuclear <weapons in the US and the U.S.S.R. On May 10,

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thousands of marchers supported this call for a nuclear freeze and on May 11 they lobbied their Congresspeople for support on this issue.

Now is the time for locally centered organizing, educating, and lobbying. May 10 was only the begin-

Photo by Louise Luczak

ning; we must all get together to stop the nuclear

arms race.

For more information about the Women's Party for Survival, please call (216) 241-7859.

however, they will continue into the third week in June Hearing dates are June 10, 12, 15, 17, 18 and possibly 22.

Support for S.B. 158 is waning as more Senators who previously favored the bill are beginning to suspect its constitutionality. However this may not be an altogether favorable sign since the Senators, in an attempt to legislate their own personal morality, may, as a solution, turn their attentions to seeking a constitutional amendment banning abortion.

Civil disobedience is not new to the women's movement. Nineteenth Century British women suffragists sustained a long campaign of civil disobedience which, besides peaceful agitation, involved terrible physical hardship. In 1872, Susan B. Anthony and fifteen other women committed the federal crime of registering and voting in a presidential election. The presiding judge upheld a prosecution claim that Ms. Anthony was "incompetent to testify" and directed the jury to find her guilty, thus denying her the right to a jury trial.

In 1917, the Congressional Union (also known as the Women's Party) picketed the White House gates in protest of the Democratic Party under President Wilson, whom they held responsible for the failure to pass the suffrage amendment. Charged with obstructing sidewalk traffic, the women's jail sentences ranged from a few days to six months. In all, 218 women were arrested and 97 imprisoned. Once in jail, they protested by going on hunger strikes and were subjected to forced feedings.

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Within the past year, Sonia Johnson followed the suffragists' example and led a group of women to protest the failure to pass the Equal Rights Amendment by chaining themselves to the gates of the White House. 164 women were arrested while non-violently blocking the entrances to the Pentagon as part of the Women's Pentagon Action this past November.

As threats to women's personal physical integrity and basic human rights continue to arise, we must reconsider the tradition of civil disobedience as one way of asserting that our rights and freedom are not expendable.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Attorney's office has refused to reduce to disorderly conduct the charges against the six women arrested. Their D.C. Superior Court trial will probably take place in July. The women urgently request contributions to cover legal fees and the potential' fines of $500 each. Send donations to: Women's Liberation Zap Action Brigade

c/o Libby Smith

687 Sackett Street

Brooklyn, New York 11217

Make checks payable to Libby Smith. Call (202) 234-8072 for further information.

Labor Ignores ERA

(HerSay)-Labor organizations are not flocking to join the boycott by women's groups of states which have failed to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Forty-three AFL-CIO affiliated unions recently responded to a U.S. Labor Department inquiry as to where they would hold this year's national meetings. Of these, 19 unions-nearly half-have plans to meet in states which have not ratified the amendment. Unions meeting in the non-ratified states include the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union (Illinois), the American Musicians Union (Utah), the Insurance Workers International Union (Florida), the International Brotherhood of Firemen and Oilers (Florida), and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters (Illinois). Independent unions holding their annual meetings in unratified states include the Teamsters, the International Guards Union of America and the Congress of Independent Unions.